Leon's Apprentice
by Momiji Gester
Summary: The average high school life of Sora Wellgood is turned upside down when he discovers Destiny Islands' deepest secret...SoraxKairiUPDATE: Chapter 6 is up! Rated T for language and suggestive situations.
1. Friday PLUS Reverse Rebirth

**Here is the first chapter of my first story! Okay, okay, it's not really my first story, I wrote a bunch of lame Digimon fanfics before (which I deleted), but this will be my first Kingdom Hearts fanfic, and the first one I'm really serious about!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, settings, or basically anything. That's why it's called a _fan_fic.**

* * *

Fridays are usually pretty good.

In fact, sometimes, they're the best day of the week. I get to walk home with my friends, Riku and Kairi. Sometimes we hang by the beach. Sometimes they even come over to my house. It's a lot of fun. And let's not forget, after I get home, there's always the added bonus that I now have two days to do whatever I want.

But today is different.

First off, Selphie's dad's birthday was this Friday, and so Selphie took off from work at the Golden Tree Branch.

"…So I offered to fill in for her." Kairi explained during lunch at school that day. "So, I can't walk home from school with you guys, if that's okay."

"That's okay." Riku said immediately. "We understand."

"Yeah, of course." I said.

"Thanks, guys." Kairi said, and went off to eat with Selphie (we don't know why.)

"Looks like it'll be you and me, Sora." Riku said. That was okay, although I'd definitely miss having Kairi around. But it didn't work out like that. After math class, Riku got a call.

"Hello?" he said, taking out his cell phone. "Hey, Loz, what's up? You sound like you've been crying." Riku winked to me. It was a joke with the whole Darkside family that Loz cried a lot. He doesn't really, although he does get emotional. But the whole playfulness flowed from Riku's face suddenly. "Why? …You can't be serious. Well I'm not coming. I'm not! I don't want to have to suck up to Mayor Leadfellow and all dad's stupid friends. I don't care, Loz. Whatever. See you later." Riku hung up and banged his head against his locker.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Dad's throwing a party." Riku said. "He wants all of us to be there. Loz said Yazoo's calling the math teacher to let me out early. I have no way out of this…unless…" Riku stared at the locker for a long time, and then said, "Sorry, Sora, but I gotta go."

"Wha--?" I said, but Riku took off running out the door. Riku's fast. Even if I tried, I couldn't catch up to him.

So, in the end, I ended up walking home alone. I was pissed that Riku and Kairi weren't coming with me. I hate being alone. But there's more bad news. I get home and mom's all dressed for work.

"Hi, honey." Mom says. "I'm sorry I have to just up and leave like this, but there's a party and I'm supposed to be the caterer." I sighed audibly. "What is it, honey?" Mom asked. "I noticed you were home early."

"Kairi had to go to work and Riku ditched me."

"Oh." Mom said, understanding now. "Well, you can see them tomorrow, can't you?"

"Yeah, but…I've got nothing to do today but hang out with _Roxas_."

"Actually, Roxas is staying over at Hayner's today. When your father gets home, he'll pick Roxas up."

"Great." I muttered. Mom came over and kissed me on the top of my head.

"Hey, if you get lonely, you can invite Riku or Kairi over." she said. "But…not Tidus. Last time he was here, he broke your grandmother's vase."

"I know. He said he'd pay for it."

"No, that's okay, I sent it over to the Cid's workshop. If Riku's hiding from his father's party, he might have gone to work and then he'll be bringing it over today."

"Oh, cool." I said. Then I realized something. "Mom, how did you know about Riku's dad's party?"

"Who's party did you think I'm catering?" Mom asked. "Tchau." she said. I kissed her cheek.

The moment mom was gone, I sat on the couch to watch T.V. I wanted to call Kairi, but knew that it would be pushing it to call right away. Kairi needed to get settle first, and I didn't want to be too clingy. Selphie used to be like that. She was horribly annoying. Not anymore, though. So, I watched an anime about a guy named Skye Bleu. Soon enough, I got caught up in it. This was a major episode, because one of the major characters, a girl named Anna, died. Some dude named Somihoth killed her. Afterwards, there was a show about a guy named Guy Braveheart. It was also interesting. There was another one after that, but I found it boring, and went on the computer and searched "Skye Bleu". The show was called Final Quest 7. Go figure. Then I called Kairi.

I called The Gold Tree Branch, the restaurant where Kairi's a waitress.

"Gold Tree Branch on Esuna Street, how may I help you?" Kairi said breathlessly.

"Kairi! It's me!" I said.

"Sora, I'm sorry, but it's really busy right now, and I can't stop to talk." Kairi said.

"Oh…okay."

"I'll call you back!" Kairi said.

She didn't call back. Even after the store closed, I didn't call her. I didn't want to. I just didn't have the heart, or the energy. I tried calling Riku, but he didn't answer his phone at all. In the end, I went to bed early, to feel sorry for myself until my parents came home with Roxas. I even heard Roxas talking to Naminé, Kairi's little sister, on the phone. I felt jealous. My mind drifted to numerous things. I thought of Riku and Kairi at the Golden Tree Branch (as I assumed they had passed the afternoon), I thought of my job as personal assistant to Squall Leonhart, I thought of school, I thought of my parents, I thought of Roxas and Naminé and how they're like a couple, and lastly, I thought of how I loved Kairi.

I didn't remember any of it when I woke up.

* * *

But what I did, pales in comparison to what Riku did. Although I had assumed that Riku, like me, would have taken this chance to hang out with Kairi (or better yet, _me_), Riku had actually preferred to be alone today. Riku had chosen the one place he knew no one, besides me and Kairi, would find him. He had gone to the old Secret Place.

Riku was getting too big for this place. He had to stoop to get in, and had to duck through the tunnel, and when he got to the end of the room, his head brushed the ceiling. _Maybe we'll make this place bigger…_Riku thought. He'd never tried it before. Maybe take out some rocks? But no…there were drawings on all the rocks, and you could already see the sky through the holes in the ceiling--no chance of making it smaller without completely ruining it. So Riku contented himself with trying to draw more drawings on the walls. He drew a picture of himself, to start off, and then drew a big black guy with a gun for a hand, just because he felt like it. Eventually, though, he got bored, and sat down and stared at the sky. He fell asleep.

When Riku woke up, he was looking at a night sky.

_Oh, shit!_ He thought. _I slept too long! Oh, God, what am I gonna do? It's nighttime! Oh, man…dad must be out looking for me, when I get home I'll be in _so_ much trouble! Kadaj'll kill me, if dad doesn't first. Maybe by now Yazoo's calmed him down. Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man…_

While all this was going through Riku's mind, he looked cool, and calm and collected, as always. Just as he was getting up to leave, Riku noticed something. The door, the door in the Secret Place that no one had ever been able to open. Riku and I have tried, millions of times, but we never got it open. Today, it was wide open. Riku could see inside.

_How lame._ Riku thought. _It's just like outside, but without the drawings. At least it's bigger._ Something else caught Riku's eye. A sword. Not a wooden one like his and mine, but a real, nice one. A plastic one, it appeared to be. Riku picked it up. In chalk, someone had scrawled on a rock behind it "Soul Eater". Riku decided to show Kairi and me tomorrow, because he had to get home. He left this new cavity of the Secret Place, and left the Secret Place altogether. Outside seemed normal…until…

"Oh shit." Riku said, as he suddenly found out why he had never been allowed out at night.


	2. Work Tonight

**Is this the first reference to an FF character in my fic? I think so. Anyway, this is chapter two. Hehe...direct reference to Kingdom Hearts in this one. It's obvious.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic except the story itself. In fact, I barely own that.**

* * *

Today was _not_ going to be like yesterday.

Friday was a disaster. Kairi had work. Riku had to escape his dad's party. Mom had to work too. Dad always has work. Roxas is never home _anyway_. But today would be different. It was the weekend. No one had work. I woke up to the smell of fresh waffles. I went to the kitchen, and mom was making waffles. Dad and Roxas came down, and we ate, and then I did the dishes because I felt good about today.

_Today, I won't be lonely!_ I thought. _I'll go see Riku. Or Kairi. Or better yet, I'll tell them both to come over. Or go to the other island. We haven't been there all week. I'm getting bored._

As I was thinking all this, the doorbell rang. It was Riku.

"Yo." he said.

"Hey, Riku!" I said. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the island with me, but if you're too busy…" Riku was grinning in that way that meant he was provoking me.

"Of course I'm not too busy!" I said. "Lemme just--" I was going to say, "Get my sword", but my mom called to me and I finished, "…finish the dishes…"

"Well, I'll be waiting." Riku said, and he left. I finished the dishes fairly quickly and went out to the other island.

"Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you." I said as I ran across the bridge to where Riku was standing, on the little island.

"The door…has opened." Riku muttered.

"What?" I said.

"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku said. "Now…" he stopped, then smiled. "Y'know what? I'll wait until Kairi gets here."

He went up to the paopu tree, which had bent over so much it should have broken. He sat on it, and I hopped on too.

"Kairi wanted to see some soap opera." Riku told me.

"Oh." I said.

There was a long silence, in which Riku and me just looked out at the horizon. No point to it, just staring. Then Riku spoke.

"Sora…have you ever wondered why we're not allowed out at night?" Riku asked.

"Not really." I said.

"You haven't?"

"There are probably wild animals out there. That only comes out at night. That's what I always thought."

"But…what if there's something else? Something you can't kill with a normal weapon."

"I don't think so. That sounds too unlikely."

"Why?"

"What is there that needs a special weapon too be killed?"

"Your shadow."

"My shadow? What're you talking about?"

Riku just smiled his usual smile, and didn't say anything. "Riku…what are you talking about?" I said. Riku still didn't answer. So I gave up. Another long, long silence. Riku broke it again.

"We've all grown up, haven't we?"

"Well…"

I suppose we had. The years when we had been young and carefree were not long ago. Why, last year, we'd been young, and naïve, and happy. Of all of us, I'd say Kairi changed the most. Only last year, she was young, and peppy, and happy. A little too happy, at times. Now she was still those things, but not to the same extent. She was a young woman now. Maybe it was her hair. Almost since she came here, Kairi had short hair. Now she let it grow to shoulder-length. It made her look older. And Riku. Riku was becoming more and more of an enigma. He let his hair grow too, especially his bangs. Now, it's so dark under there, you can barely see his eyes. Just when he flips his hair, or when he does that thing that makes his eyes glint. Wakka also changed a bit. He's growing a beard now, and he's more muscular. And he became captain of the Besaid Aurochs. Go figure what Besaid and Aurochs are, but oh well, he's captain. And Tidus. Tidus isn't so bigheaded now. He's still bigheaded, of course, but I don't think he really is. He just acts that way because if he didn't, he'd feel insignificant, because of his dad. His dad, Jecht, was a star Blitzball player in his day. And he tends--no, likes--to put people down. And then there's Selphie. She was always romantic, active, and energetic, but now she was a lot deeper. And she was always flirting with Riku and picking on Tidus and Wakka and me, and when Kairi started getting depressed, she always keeps her happy. And then there's me. I…haven't changed all that much. I mean…I guess I'm braver.

"Hey, Sora." Riku said.

"Yeah?" I said. Riku pushed me from behind and I fell into the water. I could hear him laughing.

"Whatwasthatfor!?" I yelled up at him.

"I just thought you looked dehydrated." Riku laughed down to me.

"My mom told me to keep my clothes dry!"

"So dry 'em out before you go home!" Riku said. "It's hot enough for them to dry in an hour!"

I went back up, and, after a while, tried to push Riku down too, but I missed and nearly fell again. Then we were quiet. Finally, Riku spoke again.

"I can't wait to get out of here," he said.

I didn't answer. We already knew there was no way off the island. Not that we hadn't tried. When Kairi came here, I was the one who found her. There had been a meteor shadow the day before, and I went to take a look around. I found Kairi, and woke her up, and she went off to find out where she was. She went to City Hall, and found Mayor Pureheart's mom. She calmed Kairi down by telling her a story, and Kairi eventually fell asleep. Mayor Pureheart came home, and put together a ship of men. Wakka's dad, my dad, Tidus's dad, Selphie's dad, and a bunch of guys I hardly know all went to find Kairi's home. They packed for a month-long trip, there was a tearful farewell, and everyone left. They came back in less than an hour. Mayor Pureheart and his wife adopted Kairi. Our parents never told any of us this little story.

Then, last year, Riku, Kairi, and I had been building a raft. We were planning to look for Kairi's home. And the night we finished…there was a storm. The storm left devastation in its wake. The dock, the look out point, me and Riku's obstacle course, all the shacks…destroyed. And our raft. When Riku found out, he swam out to find the pieces. They were all in the water. He just stayed out there for a long time. He was very depressed for a very long time. He cheered up, evidently, but he never spoke of leaving again…until now.

"Riku…" I said.

"I know. There's no way off the island if we take a raft, or a boat, but…what if we took a ship?"

"Riku, I don't think--"

"Some sort of ship set to fly in outer space! We would be able to get anywhere, if we just knew how to build it. Right?"

I was quiet, and then, not to upset him, I said, "Right, Riku."

More silence. Then Riku spoke, yet again.

"Hey, Sora…remember that time you, me, and Kairi all went swimming completely naked?"

My face went red. "Yes." I said.

"Well…" Riku said. "What do you say we ask Kairi to do it again?"

Now I went into a fit. "What?!" I said. "Riku! That's totally…that's just…it's…inappropriate!" I said, unable to find the right words.

"Relax!" Riku said. "I was only joking! Jeez, Sora, you're so uptight!" he was laughing. I hadn't seen Riku this cheerful in a long time.

Eventually, Kairi showed up.

"C'mon guys!" Riku said. "I have something to show you!"

Kairi and I followed Riku to the Secret Place.

"Wow…" Kairi said. "This place is really small now. Remember when we were little, and we could fit in here without hunching?" she asked me.

"Yeah. Those were the good ol' days." I replied.

"Okay." Riku said. We were in the room with the door. "You guys remember how this door never opened?"

"Oh…" I said. _So that's what he was talking about…_I was kind of disappointed.

"Well…" Riku pushed the door. It didn't budge. "Sora, help me open it." I went over to the door and pushed. Still didn't open.

"C'mon!" Riku urged me, but the door would not budge. Then we were all quiet. Kairi spoke.

"Riku…is this a…joke?" Riku didn't say anything.

"Yeah!" he said suddenly. "A joke! I sure fooled you guys, didn't I?" Riku hadn't seemed like he was joking before. I started to laugh. Kairi laughed too.

"You really had us riled up there!" I said.

"You should've seen the look on your faces!" Riku said.

Eventually, we all went home. Just as I was getting ready for bed, the phone rang.

"Hello?" I said.

"Is this Sora Wellgood?" came a voice on the other side.

"Yes." I replied. "Who is this?"

"This is Leon. You have work tonight. Don't go to sleep."


	3. Sora's Job

**Taa-daa! Chapter three! Yippee skippee. Okay, here's where I jump the shark and return to the original Kingdom Hearts idea...lots of action, lots of references to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, and lots of other stuff.**

**For those of you who were under the impression that I own Kingdom Hearts, I don't.**

* * *

Last year, Riku, Kairi and I, were finally old enough to get jobs.

Fourteen is the youngest you can be to get a job. Riku was already fifteen, but, at Kairi's prompting, he waited for me and Kairi to be old enough to get jobs too. So, on Kairi's fourteenth birthday, the three of us started looking for jobs. Riku apparently had his eye on one job the whole time, because he immediately called a guy named Cid, and asked for a job. Kairi took a little longer, but ended up getting a job as a waitress at The Golden Tree Branch, a bar (of sorts) near our street. I took much longer. I was almost turning fifteen when I decided on answering Squall Leonhart's ad. I had been looking for some kind of adventure, and Squall's had said that all that was needed was "a sense of adventure". I had that.

My parents weren't so keen on letting me take the job, though. They'd never heard of Squall Leonhart, and weren't so sure about trusting him. Roxas, on the other hand, made wild claims about him.

"He's a crippled old man, with a giant gash on his face." Roxas said, obviously trying to scare me. "He has wild gray hair, and eyes this big!" Roxas framed his eyes with his fingers, indicating that his eyes went from his cheekbone to his eyebrow. "And his hands are so crippled that he probably can't open a pickle jar! And if you pass his house at night, you can see him training a three headed dog, and sometimes, you can even hear it howling."

Despite Roxas's stupid story, my parents allowed me to take the job. I went to Squall's house on Monday. I knocked on the door. Someone opened it.

"Who is it?" he said.

"I'm Sora Wellgood, Squall Leonhart's new apprentice. Is he home?" I asked.

The man opened the door. "Yes. But I prefer to be called Leon." the guy said.

The man I was looking at was very different from the Squall Leonhart in my mind. I hadn't believed Roxas's story, but the idea of an old man with wild hair had stuck in my mind. This was not an old man with wild hair. The _real_ Squall Leonhart had shoulder-length brown hair, and was rather muscular. He couldn't be as old as my parents, and his hands were clearly not crippled, but strong, and rather large. I couldn't imagine why this man would need an apprentice.

"Um…do you…need anything?" I asked. Leon came up very close to my face.

"I'm going to make one thing clear, kid." he said. "_Don't_ come to my house uninvited. Next time you come here, it better be because I called you."

I ran off.

Of course, I eventually came to hate Leon for that. I made a mental note to quit, but when he called, he didn't give me a chance.

So I decided to rebel. _Tonight…_I thought.

_I'm going to sleep!_

Sure, it was a pathetic excuse for a rebellion, but it would work, wouldn't it? _Give that jerk what he deserves!_ I thought.

But I ended up waking up that night anyway.

There was a knock on my window. I woke up right away. Someone was outside. I went up to the window, and opened it.

"I thought I told you not to go to sleep." Squall said. "C'mon, get in the car." he said, and before I could protest, he was walking over to a silver car. He got in, and I found myself dressing and taking my wooden sword (I know, I sound like a little kid), using the bathroom (I really needed to go), and climbing out of my window, and leaning by his window.

"Where's your weapon?" Squall asked. I held up my wooden sword for him to see.

"Are you kidding?" Squall asked. I didn't answer. "God…I told Yuffie to mention weapons…" he said, pinching his forehead as though he had a migraine.

"Who's Yuffie?" I asked.

"My assistant." Squall said. "Other assistant." he corrected. "Is that seriously the best weapon you can find?" he asked me.

"Well, my dad has a Gunblade in the garage, but it's all rusty--"

"Get it." Squall ordered.

I sighed, and went into the garage and got dad's rusty old Hyperion model gunblade. Nobody used gunblades anymore, they were so old and outdated. Tidus was saving up to get himself a real sword, one of those cool ones, a Brotherhood model. He actually laughed at my dad's old gunblade. So I took it out of its wrapper (so pathetic it doesn't even deserve a sheath) and took it to Squall's car.

"What's this?" I asked as I got in. There was something wrapped up in the back.

"Don't ask questions." Squall said. I glared at him, but got in anyway.

Upon closer inspection, I found out it was a gun. A shotgun, to be exact. It was beautiful, but I didn't dare unwrap it.

"So…" Squall said. "You, uh, you go to school?"

"Well, yeah." I said. "I'm fifteen."

"You sound like Yuffie." Squall muttered.

Now Squall was quiet for a very long time. This left me to my thoughts. What could an able-bodied man need not one, but two assistants for? And why did he have a gun in the back of his car? And why was this taking place at night? People never left the house after dark. Was he hunting something? Something that only came out at night?

I'll give you a clue; I was right.

We stopped in front of a house. This one was a little smaller than my own, if that's possible. Squall got out. "Stay here." he ordered, and I remembered that I was going to quit. _No turning back now._ I thought. _I'll quit when we get home…I mean…I might even like this job._

Squall knocked on a window. "Yuffie!" he hissed. "Get up!"

A boy opened the window. He said something, probably along the lines of "What do you want".

"Yuffie, I told you to stay awake tonight!" Squall said. He said something I couldn't hear under his breath. (I'd never find out, but he was actually telling Yuffie that he was setting a bad example for me.)

Yuffie must've said he was coming, because Squall returned to the car. The two of us sat in silence until Squall said "Yuffie likes to ride shotgun. Do you mind going to the back?"

"Uh…no." I said. _That was odd…for a moment, Squall was almost…polite._

I got out, and went to the back. I had to sit under the gun, which was not an easy task. I expected it to be somewhat light, seeing as I've never held a gun. I found out I was wrong. The thing was freaking heavy! (Excuse my language). I could barely lift it, and if I slipped in under it, I was sure my thigh would bruise.

Squall smirked back at me. "Need a hand?" he asked. Almost jovially.

"Yeah, kinda." I admitted.

Squall got out and moved the gun, comparably easier, to the trunk. Then he got back in the car, and I went to the back, now much more comfortably.

"What's taking him so long…?" I said aloud.

Squall looked at me puzzled. "Did you call Yuffie a…never mind."

Yuffie finally crawled out of the window. He walked up to the car. He had short hair, and was wearing a green turtleneck sweater with no sleeves, and extra short shorts that no guy I knew would be caught dead in. He also had girly floppy socks, and had a very curvy body, for a guy.

"Sorry I'm late!" Yuffie said as he got in the car. "I couldn't find my bra, I thought Zell hid it again. Zell's such a perv sometimes."

"B-bra…?" I mouthed. It took me a moment to register it. Yuffie's a gay!

"Yeah, a bra, duh." Yuffie said, turning to me. "Even when I do dirty work like this, I have to wear a bra. Or else it's all falling out." he said.

This was getting weird. This was hardly the kind of conversation I'd like to have with anyone.

"Yuffie, please." Squall said, his face, although I couldn't see, was red as mine, but not quite for the same reason. "You'll scare him."

"Aw, c'mon, Squall, it's not like he cares. I recognize him, he's been around a girl before."

I had to ask. "Are you…a girl?"

Yuffie stared at me. "Last time I checked." she said. Then she turned to Squall. "Are you sure about this one?" she asked. "He seems a little off."

"Sorry," I said, my face going red. "It's just…Yuffie's usually a guy name." Now that I looked at her, Yuffie couldn't be a guy. She was a very boyish girl, indeed, but she was still obviously a girl, the way she moved, the way she spoke, her body itself…

"S'okay." Yuffie replied. "I kinda expected you to be a girl anyway."

Apparently, Yuffie was the chatterbox of the two, which made them a lot easier to work with them. Yuffie talked about anything that came to mind. She told me about how she and Leon had known each other since she was little, and about Leon's girlfriend, and his rival, whose name I thought I recognized. Almazy? Or Alamase? Alamese? I wasn't sure. I hardly paid her any attention. I was wondering what my mother would think of this.

_She'd freak out._ I thought. Very likely. If she knew I was going hunting with a guy with a scar on his face and a girl who talked about bra, she would freak out a little.

We drove out to the shore, and then Squall got out of the car. He pulled his heavy gun out of the trunk and put it into a boat. Yuffie took a package out of the trunk and brought it with her. They loaded the stuff into a boat, and then Squall started to row us out to the island where Kairi, Riku, and I used to play together.

"What are we doing here?" I whispered to Yuffie. I could tell that Squall wouldn't tell me.

"Well…" Yuffie said. "Ugh…this is a lot of explaining to do." she muttered. "Well, you know how you're not allowed out after dark, right?" she asked. I knew that, I hadn't been allowed to leave the house at night for as long as I could remember. I nodded. "Well, did you ever wonder why?" she asked.

"Not until recently." I said, thinking of Riku's question earlier yesterday.

"Well…" Yuffie said. "A few years ago, when we were both little kids, there was this meteor shower--you remember that?"

"Yes!" I said. "That's when my friend Kairi came here!"

"Well, she's supposed to have come from another world, right?" Yuffie said, and I nodded again. "Well, something else came with her."

"The Heartless." Squall said. "Those without hearts. They feed on the darkness within people's hearts." He turned and looked at me. "And there is darkness…within every heart." he added dramatically.

"There were attacks. Nobody knew how to kill the Heartless, and no weapon seemed to be able to hurt them." Yuffie said. "So Mayor Pureheart forbid anyone to leave the house after dark. Work hours were changed to accommodate, and the people went ahead and did it."

"But some people weren't happy with the confinement." Squall said vaguely.

"Namely, Leon and Cid Highwind." Yuffie said. _Riku's boss,_ I thought. "Cid worked on improving Leon's weapons, and mine, and his own, until we could fight the Heartless with them.

"He filled them with light." Leon said. "But they're not very strong."

"Yeah, there is one other way." Yuffie said. "And that would be to fill them with darkness. And then they would be stronger, but that would also be--"

"I think that's enough, Yuffie." Squall interrupted.

By now, we were at the entrance to Riku and my secret place. Squall bent over and went in. Yuffie followed him. I went in after her.

"Hey, here's a new one!" Yuffie said, pointing at a drawing of a chocobo on the wall. "I haven't seen this before."

"Someone keeps doodling on the walls." Squall. "We don't know who it is, but some of the pictures are horrible." he eyed the drawing Kairi and I had done of each other. 'Bout a year ago, I added my arm reaching over to give Kairi a star, meant to be a paopu fruit.

"Looks like you." Yuffie teased. My face went red.

"Let's stop goofing around." Leon said. He walked up to the door that Riku had tried opening today and pulled his gun out of its holster, and I saw that it wasn't a gun at all, but a gunblade. Leon's gunblade was bigger than my father's, and much heavier. He had to use both hands to carry it. Squall held his Gunblade up and a beam of light traveled from it into the air. He then lowered the Gunblade causing the light to make his sword twice as long. He then stabbed it into the door. Yuffie made a giant shuriken--about the size of the one on her back--with magic, and threw this at the door. The door began to glow.

"Sora, stick your sword into the door." Squall said. I did so, and I felt myself being swept out of the Secret Place, and out onto the beach.

I hit the ground with a thud. I heard Squall and Yuffie getting up before me, but I was willing to lie down for a while. I felt tired, even though I didn't know why.

"Whoa." Squall said. "We got a big one today."

I turned and looked for it. I didn't have to look long.

We were looking at the gigantic, jet-black figure of what I would later know to be Darkside. Darkside, (no relation to Riku whatsoever) was a huge Heartless, with scraggly hair and glowing yellow eyes. It was ripped, or, in other words, very muscular. You can guess what my reaction was.

"OH MY FREAKIN' GOD!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

"Yeah…" Yuffie said.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" I yelled at Squall. "HOW THE HELL DID IT GET HERE!? WHAT IS GOING ON!?"

"I can't explain now." Squall said. Then he turned to Yuffie. "I read about this the other night! Aim for the wrists!"

"Got it, Squall!" Yuffie teased.

Even in the middle of a battle, Squall bothered to call "It's Leon!" before running at the thing.

This thing was dumb. If its wrists were its weak point, like Squall said, it wasn't doing a good job of keeping them out of reach. Every chance it got, it would kneel down and spread its arms out, or punch the ground. Leon and Yuffie weren't having any trouble with attacking it. I did my best to help, but this thing was so big, and my dad's sword was so rusted, I was freaking out. If I hadn't gone before I left, I would've pissed my pants.

But every time the thing spread out its arms, it would shoot energy blasts that always hit us and every time it punched the ground, it let out a shockwave that kept hitting us, and it seemed to be doing more damage to us than the other way around.

Then it began to get dangerous. It started making energy balls drop from the sky, which were harder to evade and made your entire body ache. Yuffie did her best to heal herself, but Squall refused to take any restoratives.

"Don't waste them on me!" he'd say. "Give one to Sora!"

The green potion Yuffie gave me tasted like water, but was cool and made you feel better, not tired at all. _Some type of energy drink,_ I figured. But it worked wonders. I soon realized that Squall should've taken a potion. He was nearly falling over, unable to stand. He couldn't take any more hits. I took a potion from Yuffie and ran over to him.

"Dude--I mean, sir--you need a potion. We can't lose you now, you're are best player!"

"I'm fine!" Squall grunted. "Go to the boat!" He then charged at Darkside and slashed its face. This did some more damage than slashing its wrists. It keeled backward and roared so loud I was sure it could be heard back at home.

I ran over to Yuffie. "Squall says to leave." I told her.

"What?" she asked, and she looked incredulous. "We can't just leave him here! He needs us!" She turned and ran over to him. "Squall!" she said. "Take a Hi-Potion! You can't go on like this!" She reached into her pouch to get one, but Darkside lifted a ball from deep in the ground and threw it in the air. It landed on the ground with a thud, leaving a shockwave that hit us all.

"Yuffie, go!" Squall ordered.

Yuffie did as she was told.


	4. Yuffie's Breakdown

**Part Four. This'll be at least half of the YuffiexSora in the fic...and, I know, Yuffie's just a bit OOC...hopefully only a bit. Right. I'm gonna marry Yuffie. Now get out.**

**Disclaimer: In case you're a real moron, I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

* * *

Yuffie was freaking out like I'd never seen. She was a completely different person now. She was in no state to row the boat, for one thing.

"Oh my God…" she said as we got into the boat. "Oh my God…oh--oh my God…" Eventually, she started saying something of consequence. "Oh no, things don't look good…Leon's always so stubborn…why couldn't he just take the potion? He's not an idiot…what if he dies? Oh no…I can't do this without him! I can't do this alone! What am I going to do? Sora doesn't have any experience…Maybe Cid will end up helping us, but he's over 40, he couldn't be as good as Leon…Oh, no, oh, no, no, no, no, no--"

"Yuffie!" I finally said. "Calm down! Squall can handle himself."

"Sora, you don't understand!" Yuffie cried out, and there were tears in her eyes now. "Leon's like the big brother I never had! I've known him since I was little! He's helped me through lots of bad times, and I've done the same! I can't let that end now, Sora! I can't!"

"Yuffie, it'll be alright. Squall's a strong guy. He'll give that thing Hell or whatever and he'll come back and--"

"Sora, don't you get it!?" Yuffie yelled. We were at the shore now. It was getting lighter--you know, that slight light just before sunrise. Someone might hear her. I tried to tell her to be quiet, but she was shouting over me. "Leon told me to come with you because he knows he doesn't have a chance! He didn't want us to get hurt, and he didn't want us to--to--to see him…" she burst into tears now. I was freaked out. I didn't know what to do. Yuffie hadn't struck me as the kind of person who'd be so emotional. I did the only thing I could think of. I put my arms around her and let her cry in my shoulder.

Eventually, I realized that it would be daylight soon, and I didn't want anyone to see us like this. I especially thought of Kairi seeing us. This thought made me fling her away. She stumbled and fell to the ground.

"What--?" she said. In this state, I didn't want to offend her, and I figured the truth would be pretty offensive. So I hurriedly thought of some dramatic declaration that would make everything better. I said:

"Let's go after Squall! No more wasting time! If we get there, we might be able to save him!"

I realized how stupid I had just been a moment too late. I had no idea how to fight this thing, and I would be no use. Besides, Squall could be dead by now, he'd been in pretty bad shape when we left him. And if that was true, we'd have no chance whatsoever. But it was too late to back out now. Yuffie was all riled up.

"Of course! Let's go, Sora."

There was no stopping her now. Even if I tried, even if I made some lame-ass excuse like, "I was just joking", the idea was in her head, and there was hardly any chance of getting it out.

Yuffie was the worst boat-rower in the world (if that's even a word). Maybe it was because of Squall, or maybe she was naturally like that, but she sucked at it. She kept having to turn, and the boat kept rocking over. It was horrible. But I didn't bother to tell her to slow down. I knew that we had to get there.

We didn't even bother docking the boat. Heck, we didn't even get it to shore. We stopped when the water started to get shallow and Yuffie jumped out, tipping the boat over and pushing me into the water. She ran to where Squall was lying on the ground.

"Leon!" she said. She had reason to be worried. Squall was in bad shape. His clothes were tattered, his hair was matted, he was bruised in many different places, and his scar was raw and bleeding. Yuffie pulled something out of her pouch and dropped it on him. It looked like a bottle of red liquid. It passed right through him--or more, it bounced, turning into a phoenix on its way up and disappearing.

Squall coughed. Yuffie brightened. "Don't worry, Squall, I'll beat the big, bad monster who's done this to you." she said. Even now, Squall didn't forget to say;

"It's Leon."

Yuffie and I ran at Darkside, our weapons drawn. We did pretty well, if I do say so myself, but not well enough. Yuffie kept using potions, until--

"Sora, I'm out!" she yelled.

I was bleeding above my left eye. This was not good. I could barely see with all the blood. _Dammit!_ I thought. This wasn't going well.

Darkside punched the ground again. The shockwave hit me and Yuffie, but only Yuffie fell unconscious. I thought I heard Squall call to her, but he was so weak right now that I couldn't be sure.

I wanted to make sure that Yuffie was okay, but I was so tired I could barely stand. And Darkside was coming after me now.

I tried to run, but I couldn't outrun the piece of crap.

It punched right through me, and reached into the ground, and ended up sucking me into it.

I don't know how much time passed. It could've been minutes or hours, I didn't know. But then I saw a bright light, and I was outside again, and I could see. And I was standing right in front of him, holding my dad's Gunblade in one hand, and in the other…

A giant key.

I didn't have time to ask questions. Darkside swiped at me again, and I took the change to attack is wrists. The key did a lot more damage than I would've expected. _Way_ more damage than my dad's rusted gunblade. Before long, Darkside fell over, and was swallowed unto himself. He disappeared, hopefully forever.

I realized I was tired. I needed to sleep. My entire body ached. But, instead of giving me a break, the Powers That Be brought up some new Heartless, the bug-like ones I'd seen before. I stumbled towards them, prepared to fight, but Squall--no, Leon--came out of nowhere over my head, Yuffie slung over his shoulder, and sliced the Heartless to bits. I let myself fall over.

"Well…" Leon said. "Looks like things are going to get very interesting."


	5. Enlightenment

**Ooh...looks like I'll have to change the rating to T for all the swearing going on in this chapter. Yeah. Sora realizes something. Kairi swears. Yippee.**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or any of the swear words written below.**

* * *

I don't remember going home. I don't know how Leon got me in bed without alerting my parents. But I woke up in the dirty clothes I'd worn last night, to my mom knocking on the door.

"Sora! Come on down!" she called. "Sora?"

"What?" I said to myself. I felt my body ache. I looked at the side of my bed and saw the key I'd had last night.

"Sora!" my mother came in, and I barely managed to hide the key under my bed. "Sora, come on down! Breakfast is ready!" she said.

"Sorry mom." I said, getting up. My body felt like crap. I felt that needed to sleep more. But I got up. I didn't even bother changing out of my sweaty, dirty clothes from last night. Then I made my way down the steps. I didn't think I could eat enough, but couldn't manage to keep from falling into my bowl. I needed to go to bed. I needed sleep.

Roxas kept going on about his plans for the evening. Something about going shopping with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, his best friends. From what I heard, Olette was going to drag them shopping because she needed new shoes…but I wasn't really paying attention. After breakfast, I went back to bed and slept some more.

I woke up in the afternoon, my clothes sweatier and more disgusting than ever. However, I felt actually rested, and prepared to find out more about the strange key that I was carrying. More than that, however, I wanted to see Kairi.

Upon reaching her house, the door opened just as I knocked.

"Oh!" Kairi said. She was putting on her shoes like she was going out. Then she smiled. "I was just going to get you!"

"Oh, um…" I said. "Wanna pick Riku up?"

Kairi's face seemed to fall. "Oh, um…okay, if you want to…"

Frankly, I didn't really feel like getting Riku either. I'd much rather spend some time alone with Kairi. "It's okay, if you'd rather not." I said. The look on Kairi's face was rather amazing. She seemed to be delighted just to be alone with me.

"Okay! Wanna go out to the island?"

Kairi and I sat on the dock, looking out to the ocean. A gentle breeze went through our hair. I could see a storm building in the distance.

"Hey, Sora." Kairi said. I looked at her. She was holding up necklace. "It's a necklace I made from thalassa shells. In the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage." she held it up to my face. "You want it?"

"What would I do with that?" I asked.

"I don't know." she said, pocketing it. Then she brightened. "Okay, how about this; I'll give you the necklace, and you give it back when you fall in love with someone, and they love you back."

I thought this was a rather ridiculous bet. Why would Kairi want to know when the girl I like likes me back?

_And wouldn't she already know before I gave it to her?_

"Hey, did you see the chocobo I drew?" Kairi asked. "In the Secret Place?"

"Oh yeah!" I said, and, without thinking, added, "Yuffie pointed it out to me."

I knew I'd said something wrong by the look on Kairi's face. She seemed very upset by it.

"Yuffie Kisaragi?" she said.

"I guess so." I said. "How do you know her?"

"She goes to the bar on weekends with some friends. They're always really loud. She went into the Secret Place?"

"Uh…" I said. _It _is_ supposed to be a _Secret_ Place…_"Yeah, uh…she's been using it for a while now."

"Oh." Kairi said. She and I were very quiet. As far as I was concerned, it was a very awkward silence.

Finally, Kairi spoke.

"You know that guy from Luca High? The captain of the Goers?"

"Who, Bickson?" I asked, sneering. Bickson was Tidus and Wakka's rival. He never missed a chance to diss the Aurochs.

"That's him." Kairi said. "Well, he asked me out a few days ago." Kairi was saying it like it was an offhand comment on the weather. It was weird.

"What!?" I said. "Seriously!? What did you say?"

Kairi was still acting like this was really of no importance. "I told him I'd think about it. I think I'll say yes."

This was the strangest part of the conversation. "What? With Bickson? Bickson's a jerk! You know that, Kairi!" I couldn't understand why Kairi was considering going out with this guy.

"I don't know…" Kairi said. "We've only heard about him from Tidus and Wakka, and their teams are rivals…maybe we don't know the whole story."

Kairi couldn't really think that. I remembered the Blitzball tournament at the end of last semester. Kairi had gotten really riled up when Bickson cheated. He'd been swimming by Tidus (who is commonly considered the Aurochs' best player), and slammed him in the stomach. This is cheating in Blitzball, as you cannot attack a player who does not have the ball. Tidus was actually injured, and had to leave the arena for Wakka to take his place. Kairi had been so angry, she stood up in her seat and started yelling.

"You bastard!" she'd yelled. "You son of a bitch! You lying, cheating, piece of shit! Don't think you can win without cheating? You asshole! You fucking--"

At this point, Selphie and I had managed to pull Kairi down, and told her not to get all worked up, because the Aurochs had gotten a penalty shot for it anyway. Kairi had been very embarrassed, but she continued to say how Bickson was an ass long after that. Had something happened over the summer to change her mind?

That was hardly the point anyway. Why was Kairi telling me this? Did she know…did she know something I hadn't realized until just now? Did she realize that…I was in love with her?

_I'm in love with Kairi._

I could hardly believe it myself. Until now, I'd thought of her as a sister, hadn't I?

_No…_came that voice in my head that always pointed out the things I didn't want it to. _There's been something different all year. Since you finished the raft. You haven't been able to look at her the same, have you?_

I hadn't. I would get jealous if I saw Kairi hanging out with Riku. I had dreams of her regularly. Dreams in which she would be flirting with me, even confessing her love to me, and I always enjoyed those dreams. How had it taken me so long to realize?

"We should be getting back." Kairi stated. "It's going to be dark soon." There was something different about her. She wasn't happy, like she'd been when we got here. She seemed disappointed.

"Kairi…" I said.

"Let's go." she said sharply. I didn't dare argue.

* * *

That night, I thought all about how stupid I was. How had I not realized? I'd been worrying about Kairi seeing us that night with Yuffie. Why would I be if I wasn't in love with her? Of course I was. I couldn't believe how stupid I had been.

But I'd realized it too late. Kairi was going to go out with Bickson. "That jerk." I muttered. "Such an idiot…" Bickson didn't deserve Kairi! Bickson didn't even know her! Why had he asked her out anyway? What was his damage? Where does he get off hitting on my woman?

_My woman? _I thought. _Kairi doesn't like me back, probably. Kairi doesn't even know that I like her, or else she probably wouldn't give me that charm. But…why did she give that to me anyway? Unless…_

I fell asleep with these thoughts running through my head. I think I passed out with all the thinking I'd been doing.


	6. Training

**Chapter six is up! Yatta! It's finally finished! This must be my longest chapter yet, so if you can't stand to read the whole thing, I understand. If you can stand to read it, however, I don't. Anyway, please read and review.**

**If I owned Kingdom Hearts, wouldn't it be more like this?**

* * *

I was right about that storm.

I woke up to a dreary, cloudy day. It had rained nearly all night, and it would resume raining later. I'd been lucky enough to wake up during the short period of time when it was not raining.

I got up and changed. My mind was racing like never before. With the Heartless, the Keyblade, and Kairi, I was blown over with thoughts. And I had to hide them. If I told Kairi how I felt…well what if she didn't like me back? That could--and would--ruin our friendship. For example, a guy in Riku and Wakka's class, Irvine, told Selphie he was in love with her a few years back. They used to be friends, but now she and Irvine don't even talk. Not for lack of trying on Irvine's part, though.

And the Heartless. I wasn't sure if I could tell anyone about this. And the Keyblade was a direct reference to the Heartless. If I mentioned one, the other would undoubtedly precede or follow.

So I was alone with my thoughts.

But I supposed Riku might not hate me if I told him I liked Kairi, right? It didn't really have anything to do with him.

So I arrived at school with the hope of talking to Riku. It wasn't raining now, so I didn't bother bringing an umbrella. I looked around for Riku, but he wasn't in his usual spot, on a ledge. I looked around, but if Riku was here, I'd be able to see him--he was pretty tall, and his silver hair stuck out. But there was no Riku in sight at all. So I figured I would keep his seat warm for him.

It started to rain a few minutes after I arrived. There was that inevitable scramble for umbrellas, and the screams of girls and swearing of guys who didn't bother to bring umbrellas, and people ducking under schoolbooks and rushing into the school. I just sat there and got wet. No use ducking under anything. Besides…the rain felt good.

It was a sign that Kairi was mad at me that she didn't hand me her umbrella. That, and the fact that she was glaring at me when she walked up to me.

"Where's Riku?" she snapped.

It took me a moment to realize that Kairi wasn't scolding me. "Uh…how should I know?" I asked. She bit her lip and looked away.

"Maybe I should call him…" she said to herself.

"Hey! Sora!"

Kairi and I both looked to where the shout was coming from. Yuffie was calling to me from the other end of the lot.

"I'll, uh…be right back." I said. And, without waiting for a reply, I jumped off the ledge and ran over to Yuffie. When I got close, Yuffie grabbed me and pulled me up real close to her, so that our foreheads were touching. Not only did this keep me under her umbrella and out of the rain, but it also ensured that we would not be overheard.

"Leon wanted me to tell you _not_ to tell anyone about the Keyblade, or the Heartless, or any of that, okay?" Yuffie whispered.

"Of course." I said. "I figured as much."

"Have you told anyone?" Yuffie asked.

"Of course not." I said.

"Not even…" Yuffie looked at Kairi. I turned to look at her too, then turned back to Yuffie and shook my head. "Seriously?" Yuffie said, a little louder now. I nodded again. "But you two seem so close, I figured you'd tell each other everything."

"Yeah, uh, no, I slept late yesterday, and when we talked, we talked about something…else…and I didn't think to tell her."

Yuffie grinned mischievously. "Oh…" she said. "I get it." she lowered her voice again, to a tone that I thought was very sexy. "You told her you like her, didn't you?"

"What?" I said. "No, I, I just found out myself."

"Ah." Yuffie was still grinning the same way. "Okay." she let go of me and started to walk away backwards, still grinning. "Gotcha. Okay. Don't tell anyone, 'kay?" she turned around and walked away, then turned and shouted, "Oh, yeah, Leon wants you to meet him at his house today, alright?"

"Alright!" I yelled back. I watched her for a little longer, then remembered Kairi and ran back to her.

"That was Yuffie." Kairi said coolly.

"Uh…yeah." I said.

"Right, well, I'm gonna go talk to Selphie. If you want to spend more time with _her_."

It took me a second to realize Kairi meant Yuffie, but I was too late to tell her it wasn't like that. She was gone already.

I didn't talk to Kairi between classes. Things were too weird between us. In fact, I didn't really talk to anyone 'till lunch, when Selphie came over to my table.

"I've got some bones to pick from you." Selphie said. That's like her catchphrase. When she's mad at someone, she always says that.

"…Okay…" I said. "What's up?"

"First of all," her eyes softened. "Do you have any idea where Riku is? Irvine told me he hasn't been in class all day."

"You spoke to Irvine?"

"Not on purpose…" Selphie said. "I asked Wakka, but Irvine answered."

"Oh." I said. "Well, I don't know where he is."

"Okay." Selphie said. "I'll ask his homeroom teacher, then. But I have something more important to ask you." she leaned over so that only I would hear her. "Do you like Kairi?"

I have to give it to her, Selphie's good. For her to have figured it out within mere hours of my presence during the time that I'd liked Kairi, without me saying anything that could suggest it like I did with Yuffie, Selphie must have been paying me a lot of attention. "Yes," I mouthed.

"As I thought." Selphie said. "So why are you being such an ass to her?"

"Am I?" I said.

"Yeah, you're acting like a real jerk and all."

"How?"

"Well, getting all lovey-dovey with that Kisaragi girl in front of the school, for one thing."

"I wasn't getting lovey-dovey! We were just talking, and I didn't bring an umbrella, so I went under hers."

"And you were embracing like lovers, and touching foreheads…it's okay if she's your girlfriend, but if she's just another girl…"

"She's not my girlfriend!" I shouted. The whole cafeteria fell silent. I slowly turned back to Selphie and whispered. "If anything, she was coming on to me, which I don't think she was."

"She mighta been." Selphie whispered, looking irked at what I'd just done. "Well…Kairi thinks you're being an asshole. You should talk to her."

"You think I should tell her that I like her?" I asked. Selphie pondered the question for a moment.

"No…" she said finally. "I think you should let it sit for a little longer. Telling her too early would be a mistake." Selphie got up. "I'm going to go talk to Riku's teacher. See ya."

Minutes later, the bell rang for class.

_Hm…_I thought as I gathered my empty tray._ Talking to Wakka and Irvine, me, and Riku's teacher…when does Selphie get to eat?_

Selphie had found out what happened with Riku by the end of class. She came up to Irvine, Wakka, Tidus, and I after school. The sun was beginning to come out from behind the clouds.

"I think Lulu's the hottest girl in our class." Irvine was telling Wakka.

"You screwin' wit' me, man?" Wakka asked.

"No way, dude!" Irvine said, "She's racked!"

"We countin' personality or is it just da body?" Wakka asked.

"Dude." Tidus said. "No-one beats Tifa Lockheart."

"Who?" I said.

"Remember that waitress at the ice cream parlor a few years back?" Tidus said.

"Yeah…" I said.

"That's her. Biggest pair I've ever laid eyes on." Tidus grinned.

"Bigger than Lulu's?" Irvine asked.

"You were, what, twelve? And you were looking at her chest?" Wakka said.

"Dude, you can hardly miss them." Tidus said.

"Dude, you're…" Wakka began, but Selphie interrupted him.

"He's sick." Selphie said, coming up behind us.

"Who?" Tidus asked stupidly.

"You, moron." Irvine said, shooting a reproachful glance at Tidus.

"I'm talking about Riku, you fags." Selphie said. "His teacher said that Yazoo called in for him."

"Okay." Wakka said. But I was grinning.

"What?" Selphie said. "This isn't something to laugh at, Sora. He must be really sick to be missing out on class."

But Riku hadn't been really sick in years. However, that didn't stop him from calling in sick every now and then…"Yeah, really sick or really bored. I'd bet 200 munny that he's at that girl's house. You guys remember that house we visited one time, to spy on that girl in the…uh…"

"Hey…" Selphie said. "You guys! That is just sick! I can't believe you guys could be so--"

"Sora, I think he's really sick." said Kairi, speaking to me for the first time since we got to school. However, she said it completely without emotion. "I don't think he's just skipping. Me and Selphie are gonna go see him." she paused, then, as though she had no choice, asked me, "Do you wanna come?"

I laughed. "So that Riku can brag to me about all the deuce he saw? Heck no. I've got better things to do anyway."

Selphie was giving me a reproachful glance, but I missed it.

"Uh…I'll come." Irvine offered. Then, as an afterthought, added, "If you ladies don't mind, that is." he smiled.

"No problem, Irvine." Kairi said. "Of course you can come along."

"Yeah…" Selphie didn't seem happy with this arrangement.

"Ya, well, we got some major practice to do, so…" Wakka looked at Tidus and smirked.

"Yeah, too bad, we really wanted to come, too!" Tidus said in a really un-Tidus-ish way.

"You could cancel practice…" Kairi offered.

"Sorry, didn't hear you!" Wakka said loudly. "We gotta go now, we see you guys tomorrow, ya?"

"Right…" Irvine said. "You, uh…let's go?" Irvine wasn't usually like this, but he was always nervous around Selphie.

"Yeah…" Selphie looked like she was dreading the next few hours.

I'd seen very little of Leon's house before, but what I saw now was that it was a dump. The floor was cluttered with junk that I doubted he used. Clips from old magazines, out-dated newspapers, wooden statues that could have been anything if you looked at them the right way, paintings of hideously disfigured people (one of which resembled the Squall Leonhart Roxas described), empty DVD and video game cases, books with pages falling out, etc. However, the very most surprising thing that I saw in the house was a middle-aged man who I recognized to be Riku's boss.

"Well, if it ain't the Keyblade master." Cid said. "An' to think it'd be you, of all people. My assistant's best bud!" he got up and walked over to me. "You're, what, seventeen?"

"Fifteen." I corrected. Cid jumped back.

"Fifteen? Well I'll be damned! You sure you ain't bullshittin' me?"

"Cid!" came a woman's voice from the doorway. I whirled around. The woman I was looking at was something of a legend. At the bar where Kairi worked, this woman had won Employee of the Month for nearly a year in a row, except for one month. I recognized her as the beautiful Aerith Gainsborough. She smiled at me, and I felt very warm inside.

"You have _no_ idea how happy we all are to see you. And to think, the Keyblade master would help us…"

"Aw, c'mon!" came Yuffie's voice from behind Aerith. Aerith stepped out of her way. Yuffie was still in her school uniform. "He's not all that great! Kid can't even fight."

"Hey!" I said. "Who took down that Darksaid guy?"

"Darkside. It was you, but only after Leon and I wore him down for you! You probably wouldn't be able to hurt him without that Keyblade of yours!"

"Wait…" Cid said. "This kid could take down Darkside?"

"Well, there's gotta be a reason why the Keyblade came to me!" I said.

"You mean besides the fact that Leon and I were unconscious?"

I didn't have an answer for that one. "I could take a Heartless on my own." I said.

"Oh yeah? Maybe next time Leon and I will let you try."

I didn't expect that either. "Hey, hey, hey! You know that's not…you were the one who was--" Yuffie shook her head slowly, and mouthed "no". I changed direction in mid sentence. "Cry--uh, using all those potions in the battle!"

"Excuse me…" Leon said. He was standing in the back doorway. He had taken off his jacket. "If you two aren't too busy, I'd like to get on with your training."

Training was much harder than I expected it to be, and that's saying a lot. What we (me and Yuffie) had to do was take Leon's necklace, which he called the Griever, from his belt, all the while dodging or parrying his attacks. Sounds easy? It's not. Yuffie was pretty decent, she was able to teleport short distances, but Leon was good at figuring out where she'd go next. Yuffie and I decided that I should attack Leon and for Yuffie to try to get the Griever. Not the best idea, as I could hardly hold off Leon's attacks, and Yuffie kept getting attacked anyway. In the end, we both got very sweaty and dirty, and Leon stopped us.

"You guys did pretty well, but we're gonna have to go home now."

Indeed, it was getting late. I got my stuff, and bid Aerith, Cid, and Yuffie good night.

"Oh." Leon said as I reached for the doorknob. "There's something I wanted to give you." he went up to a bookcase (which, of course, I hadn't noticed amid the mess), and pulled out a very dusty and old-looking book. He handed it to me and reached for another one.

"What's this?" I asked as he handed me the other, which was a dog-eared and far more battered looking notebook.

Leon tapped the first one. "This, _Kingdom Hearts_, is a book of legends. It tells about the Heartless, the Keyblade, and some other things that might interest you." He then tapped the other. "This, _Ansem's Report_, is the notebook of a man known as Ansem. He studied the Heartless. I think it might be even more useful."

"Oh, uh…thanks." I said.

"You can keep _Ansem's Report_ for as long as you like, but I need _Kingdom Hearts_ back by next Monday."

"Why?"

"It's not mine, it's Aerith's." he said. "Anyway, I'll need you to come over tomorrow for more training. We'll only meet…what day is it again?"

"Monday?"

"We'll only meet Tuesdays. And, uh…" Leon looked around, then led me outside. When we were outside, he spoke as though he was having a lot of trouble to say what he was saying. "I want to apologize for what I said that time you came over."

"Huh? Oh, that…it's nothing. I mean, it wasn't my business--"

"Sure it was." Leon interrupted. "I hired you. You were trying to do the right thing, and I snapped at you. I shouldn't have. It's just…" he paused. "I was going through sort of a rough time back then…but that's no excuse. I shouldn't have."

Now, I had already forgiven Leon for being a jerk that time. He was already cool in my eyes. His apology made him much cooler, now. _And besides,_ I thought, _he was going through a rough time…he couldn't help it, really._

"It's okay." I said. "Really. I, uh, already forgot about that."

"Okay…" Leon said. "Uh…you better get home. It's nearly sunset." But as I started to walk away, Leon called back to me. "Hey!"

I walked back to him. "Yeah?" I said.

"Your payment." he said, and, before I could stop him, he fished in his pocket and pulled out twelve large, pearly coins. "300 munny. It's really all I can give at this point, but you deserve more."

"No, that's okay." I said. "You don't need to pay me."

"This is your job, Sora. You're entitled to a payment."

"No, Leon, it's okay. If I'm really some legendary Keyblade master, then it's my destiny to destroy the Heartless, right?" Leon nodded. "Then I won't accept any payment for it."

"But Sora, a guy like you…you're gonna need some pocket money, aren't you? Take that girl you like out?"

I went red. _How does Leon already know about Kairi? I didn't mention her…_"Well, I'll figure something out. But you probably need the money more than I do."

Leon looked at the coins, then pocketed them. "Okay. I'll think of something to. Now get going. You want me to drive you home?"

"That's okay." I said. "I'll run."

So I ran home.

My parents were upset at me for being out this late, but I didn't get into any trouble, in the end. I went to my room and turned on my computer for the first time in weeks.

The first thing I wanted to know was if I'd gotten any e-Mails, which I had. One from Kairi that had been there for weeks, one from Riku about some assignment we had, some spam from Tidus's account that could only mean he had tried to get a free iPod or something, and a lot of company conglomerates sending me advertisements. I replied to Riku and Kairi's, and deleted Tidus's along with all the ads.

Then I checked my MySpace. New comments, messages, and friend requests. The friend requests were from people I'd never even heard of (don't know how that works), and the message was from Irvine, asking about Selphie as usual. The comments were from Kairi, Tidus, and Wakka. Nothing that required a reply.

Finally, I got to what I had been waiting for.

Space Paranoids.

Space Paranoids is an massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), where you play as a character you create and fight enemies in a cyber-world, inside the computer, leveling up until you get to level 100, when you can take on the MCP, Master Control Program. My character, Tron, was currently at level 34, and I was stuck because there was this boss who I needed to reprogram in order to defeat him, but my reprogramming abilities were pretty bad. This time, when I tried, I managed to reprogram him, but lost a lot of HP in the process, and, of course, didn't have time to deplete his HP before he killed me.

Mom called for dinner. I went down and ate. I came back upstairs and took a shower, and then did my homework and went to bed.


End file.
